Considering that the Canucks have had almost another week off again, it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if they had come out in their rematch against the Avs and laid an egg.

And that’s almost what happened – finding themselves down by a pair before the game was nine minutes old.  After that, though, they woke up and decided that they were going to try and make a game of it.  Five unanswered goals?  Awesome.

As seems to be the Canucks’ way, when those who are expected to score fail to do so, there always seem to be those who step up and fill in the gaps.  With Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, and Kyle Wellwood not doing much, it was Christian Ehrhoff who stepped up with the first multi-goal game of his career, scoring a couple and picking up an assist as well.  Steve Bernier, and Mikael Samuelsson chipped in as well.  And of course, Henrik Sedin hasn’t slowed down at all.

Unfortunately I only got to see the third period, but the way they were flying for the final 20 minutes, a complete game like that and the score would have been 8 – 2 again.  They need to remember, though, that playing less than 60 minutes with any regularity ain’t going to get it done.  The Avs might be on top of the division right now, but they’re 1-5 in their last 6, so you know that the teams that are supposed to be above them are going to quickly start closing that gap.

Sunday night’s game against the Hawks should be interesting, as it’s the first time the two have faced off since Willie Mitchell’s  hit on Jonathan Toews, which knocked him out of action for six games.  I still say it wasn’t a dirty hit, too.  A win over the Hawks would go a long way to boosting the confidence as well.  More than a pair of wins over an over-achieving team like the Avs. 

So let me get this straight.  Willie Mitchell throws a perfectly legal hit on Johnathan Toews, and gets a penalty for it.  The Canucks have a 2 on 0 breakaway blown dead because Dustin Byfuglien jumps Mitchell.  Beautiful.

Apparently goaltenders don’t need to stop breakaways anymore.  Someone just needs to jump someone behind the play, and things get blown dead.  No more breakaway.

This whole thing lately about a fight breaking out over a clean but hard hit is just pissing me off. It’s a physical game, for God’s sake.  People get hurt.  Just because someone gets hurt from a hit DOESN’T mean it was a dirty hit.

Did the Pens get jumped when Roberto Luongo got hurt last year?  Was there a fight after Daniel Sedin or Sami Salo got hurt earlier this year?  (Okay, bad example on Salo).

Regardless, the Canucks played as close to a complete game as they have in awhile, coming back to beat the Blackhawks for their first road win of the year.  Killing off 5 on 3’s, Michael Grabner getting his first NHL goal, and Mikael Samuelsson chipping in the game winner.

Alain Vigneault has been a little too light on the Canucks (at least in the media) by saying that the Canucks have been out-chancing their opponents two or three to one lately.  Uh, coach?  How many points do you get for outshooting the other team 40 – 20 if you lose 3-1?  That’s right.  NONE.  You need to get chances, but if you don’t finish more of them, you might as well have not had them.

Hopefully the trend continues tonight with a Leafs team that’s had a week off, but is still looking for its first win.  Best thing that they could do?  Jump out to a quick two goal lead to take the pressure off, and then keep driving.  Hell, run up the score.

Because, of course, there’s nothing better than beating the Leafs on national TV.  Until the playoffs start, of course.  Not that the Leafs will be playing in the post season anyway.

Seeing as how we were downtown for the Thanksgiving long weekend, I decided to head down to the hotel bar for the final half of the Dallas game. 

Maybe it was just the fact that it wasn’t much of a sports bar, but there didn’t really seem to be a whole lot of life to the place, even when Willie Mitchell gave the Canucks the lead with about 14 minutes or so to go.

But the room sure did get quiet when the Stars tied the game late in the third.  You could just kind of feel that the game was destined for the shootout based on the overtime – not a whole lot of chances really, at either end.  But with both Kyle Wellwood and Ryan Kesler scoring, and Roberto Luongo stopping everything the Stars threw at him, the Canucks managed their second win of the season.

Now they’re off again until Friday, when they play in Calgary.  Nothing like almost a week off to kill some momentum.  It won’t even help them injury-wise, really, as Daniel Sedin is off long-term, and God knows how long Sami Salo will be out this time.

Hank didn’t play too badly without his brother, either, picking up assists 4 and 5 of the year.  We’ll see how he continues to play over the course of Daniel’s forced time off.

The Canucks, even though they didn’t play badly against the Islanders the other night, played a much more complete game last night, shutting out the Ducks.  Roberto Luongo  was in great form, and Cory Schneider did well to contribute to the shutout, even stopping a penalty shot late in the third period.

It was good to see that the scoring came from those who might not be considered the ‘usual’ scorers, either – Steve Bernier, Kevin Bieksa (although it sure looked like his shot from the point was re-directed), and Aaron Rome, who rather impressed Zandberg over at ‘Nucks Misconduct.

I didn’t get a chance to see the first period due to a family event, but what I saw of the last 40 minutes was a vast improvement over the opening game against the Isles.  The passing was better, there weren’t a lot of giveaways, or any of the things that you normally come to expect in a preseason game.  Of course, they did dress a more ‘NHL-ready’ lineup in the second game, but still…there were no Sedins, no Willie Mitchell, etc.

As gets mentioned every year, the Canucks are going to need someone to step up and put the puck in the net throughout the season, not just for the first fifteen or twenty games.  It’ll be interesting to see who tries to make a go of it, though.  My money’s on Sergei Shirokov, if he sticks.  Although I’m of the opinion that he’s no Pavel Bure, it sure would be nice to see that kind of excitement again, no?

The Canucks are still down in California to play the Sharks tonight before they face the Oilers tomorrow night.  Three games in as many nights shouldn’t be a problem this early in the year, but we’ll just have to see.

What can you say about last night’s game other than it was a preseason game, and it was good to see the Canucks back out on the ice.

It wasn’t a stellar effort, but the Canucks did seem to carry the play a little more than did the Islanders.  The passing definitely could have been better (both teams were guilty of poor passing at times), but, as mentioned above, it was only the first game of the preseason.

Sergei Shirokov played pretty well (2 goals will do that), as did both Cory Schneider and Rick Rypien, who chipped in with a couple of fights.  Ronald Petrovicky impressed me a little, too.  The guy just kept digging whenever he was on the ice, which seemed to be all the time.

Nobody was really guilty of any boneheaded plays, the kind that you want the guys to get out of their system before the games start counting.

And Terrace did a great job of hosting the whole thing, with about 10% of the town’s entire population showing up for the game.  Those that weren’t able to get into the game were treated to appearances by Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa at an outdoor event.

All in all it was a good night for the Canucks who have to get ready to head down to Anaheim to face the Ducks on Thursday.  I wouldn’t really expect to see anything resembling the actual regular season lineup until probably game 6 or so.  By that time everything will be flushed out, with the odd players on the bubble being given final chances to either make the team, get sent to Manitoba, or be released.

Last year it was almost laughable at just how much the Canucks were accomplishing while being so far under the salary cap.  Even with the hit that they took for paying Mats Sundin, they still had the bucks to go out and buy a bunch of players if they had felt so inclined.

This year?  Not so much.  Right now, the Sedins and Roberto Luongo are taking up more than a third of the total payroll for the upcoming season.  Alex Burrows shows no signs of not being worth the money that they’ve now signed him for.  But you’d better believe that Willie Mitchell and Ryan Kesler are paying attention.  And they’ve just replaced 34 year old Mathias Ohlund with *40 year old* Mathieu Schneider.

I sure hope I’m wrong, but a couple of long-term injuries could quite easily wipe out a season due to the lack of room that they have under the cap.  And Luongo isn’t going to be any cheaper next year.  If the Canucks don’t sign him by his imposed deadline on the 13th of September, it’ll be hard to keep him here for the balance of this season, let alone next year.

It’s been shown that every year that the Winter Olympics have been held in North America, that the closest NHL team to the host city has won the Stanley Cup either the year before, the year of, or the year after the Olympics.  Even in years like 1960 (Squaw Valley, CA).  The NHL team closest to California at the time, won the Stanley Cup in the spring of 1961 – the Chicago Blackhawks.  And uh, Canucks fans might have heard about this, um, tournament, that’s taking place at the Garage in February.

They might not get another shot in 2010-11 if the team falls apart due to salary cap issues, though.  This might be the one and only chance for the next few years.  Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want that to be the case.

They just need to find a way to not run up against the same issues Calgary did late last season – not even being able to skate the full roster during games due to salary cap issues.

A solution needs to be found, Mr. Gillis.

End of Game

Mike the Yankee predicted that this game would have a few "guaranteed" moments.  One of which was that a Sedin would take a bad penalty in the 3rd period.  Turned out to not be a Sedin, but rather the guy who’s name rhymes with theirs.  Mats Sundin’s penalty killed the Canucks after they battled back to tie the game at 4 with just about four minutes to go.

Twenty one seconds later, the Blues put the nail in the coffin, and the Canucks were done.  Final score 6 – 4.  And this was the "easy" game this weekend.

Maybe it’d be a good idea to bench LaBarbera for a game or two, and let Curtis Sanford play.  It’s not like it could get worse.

Nobody on the Canucks played like they gave a damn about this game, and things like that need to change.  Because even when Roberto Luongo does come back, it won’t mean a thing if the Canucks continue to play like they did tonight.

Okay, brush it off and focus on the Sharks tomorrow night.  Because it’ll be an ugly weekend in Vancouver if the Canucks play two games in a row like that.

2nd Intermission

If there’s one thing that the Canucks have a habit of doing that will frustrate the hell out of you, it’s trying to sit on a lead against a team that they should have no problem beating. 

And once again, it’s coming back to bite them.

Two goals in a 59-second span has them trailing the Blues in a game where they don’t appear to be playing with any enthusiasm at all, and it’s even being reflected in the crowd at GM Place, which sounds more quiet than I can remember at any time in recent memory.  It’s not really fair to put the blame for thise whole thing on Jason LaBarbera, though.  Through 40 minutes, the whole team has done pretty much nothing.

If the Canucks are thinking ahead to the Saturday night game against the Sharks, then Alain Vigneault needs to smack some people around and remind them that they’re playing *tonight* as well, and that’s what they need to be paying attention to over the last twenty minutes. 

And that stat about the Canucks having a 17-5 record when they score the first goal doesn’t matter much anymore, because when they’re down after two periods, their record is nowhere near that good.

This period will go a long way to show what the Canucks are made of.

1st Intermission

Despite the fact that the Canucks were outplayed in the first period, they escaped with the lead, thanks to a late goal by Willie Mitchell, after Lawrence Nycholat gave the puck away in a brutal pass up the middle in his own end.  Jannik Hansen opened the scoring after being called back up from Manitoba.

As Sportsnet has pointed out, the Canucks are 17-5-4 when they score the first goal of the game, so they odds are certainly in their favour.  However, they’ll have to stay focused on the game, and not dwell on the fact that they’re opponent is one of the league’s bottom dwellers.  That kind of thinking resulted in losses to both the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers.

It’d be nice to see Mats Sundin get his first points as a Canuck tonight, but more importantly, it’d be good to see them get the two points that they need to chase down the Calgary Flames, who are idle until next Tuesday.  Wins tonight and against the Sharks would still leave them a point back, but a 1 point deficit is much easier to deal with than a 5-point one.

Some habits die hard.  I know that the Leafs have a following here in the west, but haring people cheer when the Leafs score on Roberto Luongo is a little disheartening.  Thankfully, though, it didn’t matter as the Canucks were already up by four goals.  Yeah, the shutout was gone, but as Luongo has said a few times already this season, it’s more important to get two points than to get the shutout.

But then, if you get the shutout, the two points should be guaranteed.  Anyway…

The first period looked like it might be a long night for the Canucks, as they were outshot badly, including being two men down for almost a full two minutes early on.  And during that power play, Luonogo played for an extended period without his stick, which wound up behind the Canucks’ goal.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head when you see how well the guy can play.

I would imagine that it was a pretty sweet moment for Kyle Welwwod to score against the team that gave up on him after almost four years of service.  But then, Canucks fans, and the team itself, had appeared to do the same thing.  And Willie Mitchell looked like he’d scored the Stanley Cup winning goal after getting his first of the season.

I even have to admit to being impressed by both Luke Schenn, and Jason Blake for the Leafs.

The Canucks came as close as they’re ever going to come to a home crowd that isn’t completely on their side, and they dealt with it just fine, keeping the Leafs off the scoresheet as long as possible, until the game was well in hand.  It would have been hard to ask for a better outcome.

They start an eastern road trip tonight, starting on Long Island before finishing out against the Rangers, Wild and Penguins next Saturday.  It’s a fair bit of travel, going from New York to Minny and then back to Pittsburgh, but in the old days of scheduling, they’d have probably wound up going from Uniondale to Minnesota, then play the Rangers, and then the Pens.  In five nights, rather than six.  And then head home to play the Red Wings the next night or something.

But those days appear to be in the past, so I have a feeling that they’re going to come back from this trip with a 3 -1 record.

Only time will tell, though.

Thoughts from behind the bench:

• Toskala not good enough in Vancouver – budblog
• Game 18: the Joy of Hate – Crashing the Goalie
• Canucks/Leafs – The Humming Giraffe
• Canucks 4 – Leafs 2: The Day After – Waiting for Stanley

So, that excellent power play that we’ve been hearing so much about lately – uh, where was it?  When you go 0 for 7 on the power play, there needs to be some serious looks at what’s going wrong.

And about the only thing that was worse last night was the Canucks’ inability to avoid taking stupid, costly penalties that would eventually cost them.  The Canucks couldn’t score on the power play last night, and it didn’t seem like they could stop the Wings from scoring on the power play either.  Except for Mike Brown’s fighting major, the Canucks gave the Red Wings the man advantage 5 times in the first two periods, and they scored on three of them.  Willie Mitchell’s pnalty in particular, to put them two men down, could hardly be classed as birilliant.

It was hardly the free-wheeling affair of the season’s third game when the Canucks came from behind to win it in overtime.  Unfortunately, there were no such heroics this time, although they sure made a game of it in the third period, but just couldn’t seem to get it finished.

But, based on the way that they’ve been playing lately, they alternate wins and losses (okay, so California was different – sue me).  So, the next game against the Predators tomorrow night should be a win.

Hopefully I haven’t jinxed it for them now.

It’s been a long time since it’s been done – 1947-48 to be exact. But the Vancouver Canucks today named goaltender Roberto Luongo as the 12th captain in the club’s history.

Although there’s apparently been a rule in place that didn’t allow goaltenders to serve as captains, or alternates, I’m presuming that the Canucks would have run this by the league first to make sure that it didn’t get smacked down.

Congratulations to Luongo – and to Ryan Kesler, Willie Mitchell, and Mattias Ohlund, who will serve as the alternates.

Update: According to TSN, the Canucks can certainly name Luongo as the captain, but he won’t wear the ‘C’ on his jersey. It’ll be up to the alternates to deal with the officials. So there’s the ruling.